


Temporary Dog

by QueenThayet



Series: Werewolf Super Soldiers [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Established Relationship, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Multi, Pre-Poly, Pre-Stuckony, Tony Stark Has A Heart, established stucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-13 09:50:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16015448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenThayet/pseuds/QueenThayet
Summary: Tony accidentally discovers that Steve and Bucky seem to have a dog in their apartment. Flirting, misunderstandings, and hilarity ensue.





	Temporary Dog

**Author's Note:**

  * For [swtalmnd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/swtalmnd/gifts).



> One day Amy sent me a tweet of a picture that said "Temporary Dog Park" and the comment "Those are called werewolves." She thought that Tony would find this hilarious. This fic is the result.

Tony walked into the apartment that Steve and Bucky shared in Avenger’s tower and immediately tripped over a large well-chewed bone. 

“When did you get a dog?” Tony asked as Steve hurried to apologize and move the bone. 

“I’m so sorry, Tony, is it a problem?” 

“No, I just didn’t know you had a dog. I haven’t ever seen one here,” Tony said, confused. He wasn’t sure why Steve was so anxious, it’s not like he was going to be some sort of crazy landlord kicking them out because they didn’t declare their pets on the lease. 

“It’s sort of a… temporary dog,” Steve said, blushing slightly. 

“A temporary dog?” Tony raised his eyebrows. “Like what, you time-share the dog with someone else?”

“Something like that,” Steve said. “Was there something you needed? I’m real sorry about the bone, Tony, I just hadn’t gotten stuff cleaned up yet.” 

“Oh right,” Tony snapped his fingers as he remembered. “I wanted to see if you guys had time for lunch after I look at Bucky’s arm tomorrow.”

“Um, yeah, that should be fine,” Steve said. “You can always just have Jarvis ask us, or text us, y’know, you don’t have to come all the way up here to ask us face to face. We’ve actually figured out the whole technology thing fairly well.” 

“No, no, I know,” Tony said, tripping over his words this time, “I just thought I’d stop by to see you, in the building and all,” he said awkwardly.

“Oh okay, well it’s always good to see you, Tony,” Steve said, smiling. “We’ll see you tomorrow then?”

Tony nodded and sort of awkwardly saluted as he left Bucky and Steve’s apartment. That hadn’t gone horribly, he thought to himself. He was always awkward around Steve and Bucky, but he thought they were working through it. It had been awkward since the beginning with Steve, but decades of hero worship from his Dad’s stories, combined with the chiseled perfection of having the man in front of him, how else was he supposed to act? How was he supposed to tell someone who fought in WWII that he had a crush on him? And then it had just gotten weirder when it turned out that not only was Captain America familiar with the concept of men dating men, but he was basically married to Bucky Barnes, who, oh by the way, just happened to be the Winter Soldier, who had killed Tony’s parents. 

So, yeah. Things had been weird. But they were getting better. Tony was working on improving the mess that had been Bucky’s arm. Bucky, when not brainwashed into a horrible Soviet murder ghost, turned out to be a good guy. A pretty awesome guy, actually. And Bucky’s presence apparently helped remove the stick from Steve’s ass (probably to replace it with something more fun, a fantasy that Tony had only indulged in a few times), which made Steve a pretty good guy also. 

He was eventually going to get over the whole hopeless crush. Really, any day now. 

***

At lunch the next day, Tony decided to ask Bucky and Steve about their dog. It seemed like a good way to try to connect with them that wasn’t work and wasn’t sexually fraught. 

“So what kind of dog do you have? Must be pretty big based on the size of the teeth marks on that bone,” Tony asked before taking a bite of his burger. 

Bucky almost choked at Tony’s question, leaving Steve to pound him on the back as he sputtered. “Our dog?”

“Yeah, um, Tony stopped by yesterday and saw the stuff.” 

“Yeah, your ‘temporary dog’,” Tony quoted Steve, rolling his eyes a little. 

“Our temporary dog?” Bucky coughed again, looking at Steve with his eyebrows almost at his hairline. 

“You guys are going to have to explain this whole time-share dog thing to me at some point. Do you still have him today? Could I see him when we get back?” Tony asked excitedly. 

“Oh, um, no, he’s not there today because we knew we were going to be busy today.” Steve said, looking pointedly at Bucky. Bucky was grinning, clearly trying to hold back laughter. 

“Okay, well, next time you have dog, have Jarvis let me know, I’d really love to meet him.” Tony said, not really sure why Bucky found it so hilarious, probably some sort of inside joke. 

Tony was disappointed, but not really very surprised that Steve and Bucky didn’t invite him up to meet their dog. He kind of let it slip out of his mind until the next time he was up at their apartment, and saw the couch cushion that had been torn to shreds. 

“Oh, is the dog here? Can I meet him?” Tony asked, forgetting entirely what he came up for. 

“Um,” Steve started as a large furry blur ran in from the other room toward Tony. 

“Bu—tterfingers, no!” Steve said as Tony ended up pushed over, being aggressively licked by the incredibly large dog on top of him. 

“Did you name him after my robot?” Tony asked, scratching the dog’s ears enthusiastically. 

“Uh, no, that was just already his name when we got him.” 

“Oh right, because he’s your temporary dog, right? You never did explain how that works,” Tony asked. He continued petting the dog as Steve appeared to struggle with an explanation. 

“Who’s a good puppy? Who’s a good temporary dog,” Tony puppy-talked to the dog while looking it over. Besides being massive, the dog had a pointed lupine snout and a lovely brown and black brindled coat, with a few hints of reddish fur. “Wow, your dog is enormous! Is he part wolf? Do they even let you license wolf-dogs in the city?”

“Um, yeah, he’s a wolf-dog. That’s why he’s temporary, we can’t really license him in the city, and he needs lots of outdoors time,” Steve said. 

“Oh, does that mean we can’t take him for a walk?” Tony asked, pouting slightly. 

“Yeah, he doesn’t do great with leashes,” Steve said, laughing slightly to himself. 

“How does he do with travel?” Tony asked. “We could take him out to one of my properties upstate to run around sometime if you guys wanted.”

Steve looked surprised at the offer. “That’s mighty nice of you to offer, Tony, thank you.” 

“Well, talk it over with Bucky and let me know,” Tony said, giving the dog one more affectionate head rub. “And it was good to meet you, Butterfingers! You’ll have to come meet the robot version of you sometime! Tell your dads that you want to come play with Uncle Tony.” 

“I’ll let you know, Tony, thanks,” Steve said, looking oddly pained as he watched Tony play with his temporary dog. 

***

It took another couple visits, but Tony finally convinced Steve to bring Butterfingers up to the lake cabin upstate for a visit. 

“It’s too bad Bucky couldn’t come; what’s he up to today?” Tony asked Steve as they got out of the helicopter behind the cabin. Butterfingers had run off toward the lake the moment they’d touched down and was now joyfully splashing in the water. 

Steve sighed and looked pained again. “I’m not sure,” he said finally. 

“Hey, are you two okay?” Tony asked, concerned. “I don’t want to pry, but if you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here. Or you can talk to JARVIS, or get him to find you a qualified professional or whatever.” 

“Thanks Tony,” Steve said, looking surprised and pleased again. “We’re good, Bucky’s just been needling me a bit, but he knows it and he’ll cut it out at some point.” 

Butterfingers had run back to them at that point and as Steve finished his explanation, he shook all over, spraying Steve and Tony with lake water. Steve glared at the dog but didn’t say anything. Tony just laughed and ran into the cabin to grab some towels. When he came back out he heard Steve saying something in a strained tone to the dog: “can’t keep this up…trouble.” 

“Aww, go easy on’m, Cap, he’s just a big puppy,” Tony said, tossing a towel at Steve. 

Butterfingers barked approvingly at Tony and turned back to Steve with big puppy-dog eyes. Steve sighed and rolled his eyes and waved toward the woods. “Fine, go run, that’s why we’re here,” 

Butterfingers barked again and ran off into the woods like a maniac. 

The trip to the cabin upstate marked the beginning of a much more comfortable and friendly relationship with Steve and Bucky. They stopped by his workshop occasionally, and Tony was welcome to come by their apartment to play with their temporary dog. They even let him make some harder to destroy toys, when Tony commented on how hard Butterfingers was on their furniture. Things were going really well on the “making friends with Bucky and Steve” front. And sometimes he even thought they might be flirting with him. But it never went anywhere, so Tony chalked it up to wishful thinking. And then one day, everything changed. 

“Hey, I thought I heard your temporary dog, can I play with Butterfingers?” Tony called as he walked into Steve and Bucky’s apartment. 

Bucky froze and looked up as what looked like a large white dog ran into the other room. 

“Oh, hi Tony,” he said awkwardly. The dog barked from the other room. 

“Do you guys have a new dog? What happened to Butterfingers?” Tony asked. 

“Sort of…?” Bucky said, spreading his hands out as if the correct answer might fall from the sky into them. “Steve was right, this is hard to explain.” 

“Do you have another temporary dog?” Tony asked. “You never did explain how that works. Is it like a service, or is there just like one other set of co-owners or what?”

“Um, yeah, it’s kind of like that,” Bucky said. 

“Can I meet this one then?” Tony asked, excited at the prospect of meeting a new dog and therefore letting Bucky get away with not really answering his question. 

“Sure…” Bucky said. He put his fingers to his mouth and whistled. “Come here, Dummy,” he called. 

“Hah, you named this one Dummy? Are you going to name all your dogs after my robots? Watch out, I’m going to think you like me,” Tony joked. 

“Aww, Tone, we do like you,” Bucky said, giving Tony a half smile. Tony smiled back until he saw the dog, or what was supposed to be the dog, walk in from the other room. 

“Buckster, I hate to break it to you, but that is not a dog; that’s a wolf,” Tony said, his face going white as he put his hands out and started to slowly back toward the door. 

“You don’t think it’s a Siberian husky?” Bucky asked hopefully. 

Tony looked over the dog, no wolf, carefully. It sat down calmly next to Bucky, so it was clearly well trained, somehow. But it was massive, larger than any dog, and it had pure white fur all over, and piercing blue eyes, and was definitely, absolutely, one hundred percent a wolf. 

“Bucky, you have a white wolf sitting at your feet. What the fuck kind of service is sending you a wolf dog and a wolf for pets, even part-time pets?”

“It’s fine, Tony, it is really absolutely fine, I promise,” Bucky said, trying to calm Tony down. 

“Does Steve know about the wolf?” Tony asked, “I notice he’s not here right now.” 

Bucky laughed for some reason and said “Um, yeah, Tony, Steve knows about the wolf.” As Bucky responded, the wolf walked up to Tony, who froze, and leaned forward and licked his hand. 

“Bucky, your wolf is tasting me,” Tony whisper-shouted. Bucky was nearly in tears with how hard he was laughing. 

“Okay, I am truly concerned about both your and my safety, so if you don’t stop cracking up like you’ve lost all your marbles, I am calling for backup,” Tony said, far less amused and a lot more terrified. 

“No, no, wait, it’s okay, I’ll explain,” Bucky gasped, trying to catch his breath. “Steve knows about the wolf because Steve is the wolf.” 

Tony was incredibly alarmed at this statement. “JARVIS, I need you to get any Avengers in the area over here, now, we have a potentially dangerous situation—“

“No, no, no, no, JARVIS, belay that order; Tony please, just let me explain before you freak out.” 

“Um, it’s a little too late for that Buckaroo, we are waaaaay past freaking out. Freaking out can’t even see me, I’m so far ahead of it. It just looks like freaking out is still possible because I’m about to lap it.” 

Bucky looked at the wolf. “A little help here?” The wolf shook its head and panted with its tongue out, as if it were laughing. Then finally it _rolled its fucking eyes_ and then trotted back to the hallway. 

A minute later, Steve called “Hey Buck, could you throw me my—,” Bucky tossed a pair of shorts to Steve in the hallway before Steve could finish his request. Steve came out wearing the shorts that Bucky had given him, and nothing else. 

“What. The FUCK. Is Going. On?” Tony asked. 

“So… fun super secret classified fact: It turns out that super soldier serum comes with a side effect of becoming a werewolf.” Steve said, shrugging bashfully. 

“Like howl-at-the-moon, involuntarily-changing, out-of-a-bad-movie, evil-bitey werewolf?” Tony said incredulously.

“Well not really any of those things other than howling at the moon, that can be fun sometimes. It’s not really anything like movies say it is. But yeah, we can turn into wolves. And we don’t _have_ to, but we get kinda antsy if we don’t.” Steve explained. 

“So this is not just a you thing, this is a you and Bucky thing? Does Bruce turn into a wolf also?”

“No, Bruce turns into a Hulk,” Bucky added helpfully. 

“Yeah, it’s Bucky too. But the version of the serum he got doesn’t work as well, so he feels like he has to shift more often. That’s why he’s always been the one in wolf form when you’ve come by before.” 

Tony stared at Steve as if he had grown a second head. “Your temporary dog is Bucky?”

“Yeah,” Steve rubbed absently at the back of his head. 

“So you don’t actually have a temporary dog. You don’t have a dog at all. The two of you just turn into wolves sometimes.”

“You got it,” Bucky said, grinning at Tony. 

Tony stared at the two of them for a moment longer, then started cracking up laughing. “Oh my god, you two, you really had me going. How long have you been planning this? Hoo boy, Rhody’s gonna flip when I tell him you almost convinced me you were werewolves. But really, where did the wolf go? Is it like a Hollywood wolf or something, is that why it’s so well trained?”

“What the fuck is a Hollywood wolf?” Bucky asked.

“I feel like you didn’t really think this through, what with Buckaboo here having a metal arm. I’ve spent a lot of time with Butterfingers, he definitely had four furry non-metal legs. Nice try though, you really had me fooled for a second.” 

“Tony, I know your big brain is flipping out here, but I need you to believe me. You cannot tell this to Colonel Rhodes. You cannot tell this to anyone.” Steve said seriously in his ‘I’m Captain America, you have to listen to me’ voice. 

“Wait, you’re not joking?” Tony asked, taken aback at Steve’s tone. 

“No, I’m not, Tony.” 

“You think that you and Bucky turn into werewolves?”

“I don’t just think it, Tony, that’s what happens.” 

“Then why the whole ruse with the wolf running out of the room before Steve appeared?” Tony asked suspiciously. 

Steve blushed. “Um, because when we shift we don’t have any clothes on.” 

“Your modesty is real becoming, miss, but I’m not going to trust this until I see it with my own two eyes.” Tony snarked. 

“I’ll do it,” Bucky volunteered. 

“You’ll do what?” Steve asked. 

“I’ll turn into a wolf and back in front of Tony. I’m not ashamed of my body,” Bucky gave a pointed look to Steve. 

“I'm not ashamed, I just, oh never mind, go ahead and show him,” Steve grumbled. 

Bucky made a little bit of a production out of taking his clothes off, and if Tony gave him an extra long look, well, observation is one of the keys to science. 

Once Bucky was naked, he closed his eyes and he started to fall forward. He landed not on his hands, but on paws. The large brown and black (with a few hints of red) wolf dog that Tony had come to know as ‘Butterfingers’ was standing in front of him, mouth open, tongue out, and eyes sparkling. 

“Holy shit.” Tony’s legs lost the ability to hold him up and he sat down hard on the floor. 

Butterfingers, no _Bucky_ bounded over to him joyfully and jumped on top of him. 

“Come on, Buck,” Steve complained. Bucky sent a dismissive look over in Steve’s direction before he started enthusiastically licking Tony’s face. Tony felt his hands come up automatically to pet the dog on top of him. He gave Bucky a few good scratches before he realized what he was doing and stopped. 

“What am I doing? What is he doing? That’s Bucky?” Tony whispered in horror. 

“Buck, come on, change back now,” Steve ordered, jerking his head in the direction away from Tony. 

Bucky whined but obeyed, backing up and shifting rapidly back into his human form. His very naked human form. Tony felt dizzy. 

“Are you okay?” Steve asked Tony. 

“He’s…and you’re…” Tony mumbled. 

“Yeah, I know, it’s a lot,” Steve said, coming over to put an arm around Tony’s shoulder. 

Tony closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, Bucky was still standing naked in front of him. He wasn’t sure whether that was more or less believable than the idea that super soldiers were werewolves. 

“Buck, put some clothes on, you’re embarrassing Tony,” Steve scolded. 

“That’s not exactly the word I would use,” Tony muttered, trying to ignore the inconvenient, if predictable reaction he was having in his pants. 

“What word would you use,” Bucky smirked, remaining defiantly naked. 

Between Bucky’s nudity and Steve’s arm, Tony felt like he might combust out of sexual frustration. He hadn’t even begun to process the werewolf thing. 

“Torturing maybe, teasing definitely,” Tony grumbled. 

“It’s only teasing if you don't follow through,” Bucky said, getting down on the floor with Tony. 

“This is the absolute wildest dream I’ve ever had,” Tony mumbled as he reached for Bucky. Bucky grinned and crawled forward into Tony’s space to kiss him. 

“Not a dream, Tony,” Steve said dryly. 

“No, it has to be a dream, because Bucky just turned into a wolf and now he’s naked and kissing me and that only happens in my dreams. Well the naked kissing at least. The wolf thing is new,” Tony insisted.

“So you’ve dreamed about naked kissing with me?” Bucky asked with a tone of faux innocence. 

“Uh, yeah, of course. You’re usually naked too though, Spangles. You gonna get in on this action?”

“Oh Stevie’s had a crush on you for ages,” Bucky said wickedly. 

“I really don't think this is the right time to discuss this, Bucky,” Steve said pointedly. 

“Why not? I’m naked, you’re almost naked, Tony’s into it, we’re already on the floor. Seems like the perfect time to me.”

“Because Tony thinks that he’s dreaming. I think that discussion should be put on hold until everyone has coffee. And pants.” 

“Tony’s right here,” Tony said, irritated at being talked about. “And let me tell you, two shirtless super soldiers is not going to be significantly less diverting than what we’ve got going on right now. I could totally go for coffee though.” Tony looked expectantly at his right hand, waiting for coffee to appear. 

“Tony, you’re not dreaming. Bucky and I are werewolves. We’re also very attracted to you, but we’re tabling that conversation for now.”

“If I’m not dreaming, then why is Bucky naked and kissing me?” Tony asked smugly. 

“Because Bucky lacks shame and impulse control.” 

“Awww, you say the sweetest things, Stevie,” Bucky cooed. But he did back off of Tony a bit.

“Now put some pants on, we can’t have this conversation if you’re naked,” Steve chided. 

Instead, Bucky turned back into a wolf and snuggled down into Tony’s lap. 

Tony immediately started petting Bucky again while he processed what was going on. Reality or not, petting Bucky was really calming. 

Steve rolled his eyes, but reached over to pet Bucky as well. 

“While not at all what I meant, I suppose technically you’re not really naked anymore. You’re lucky you’re a cute wolf, jerk,” Steve said. 

“Wait, did you distract me with sex, Barnes?! I am both so disappointed and so proud of you,” Tony said in a slightly outraged tone. Steve burst into laughter and Bucky just wagged his tail enthusiastically. 

“So how does this work?” Tony asked finally. 

“I really do think that we should probably wait to talk about this until Bucky can be a part of the conversation as well,” Steve said reluctantly. 

“No, not the possibility of a significant majority of my fantasies from the last year coming true, we’ll get back to that, trust me. The sometimes you turn into wolves thing.” 

“We’re not really sure. It wasn’t a side effect anyone anticipated. Or maybe Erskine did, but he didn’t get the chance to tell anyone.” 

“Right, but how does it work? How do you turn into wolves? What about conservation of mass? Why does Bucky’s metal arm turn into a normal wolf leg? Are there other werewolves? I have so many questions!”

“Well, maybe you can help us figure it out?” Steve asked tentatively. 

“You’d let me do that?” Tony asked, amazed. 

“We trust you, Tony.” 

“If this is a dream, I’m going to be so fucking pissed.” 

“It’s not a dream, Tony,” Steve reassured him. 

“And the bit about you having a crush on me?” 

“Also not a dream,” Steve said, blushing. 

“In that case, y’wanna go get that coffee?”


End file.
